For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause read more

For historians ought to be precise, truthful, and quite unprejudiced, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor affection, should cause them to swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, the rival of time, the depository of great actions, the witness of what is past, the example and instruction of the present, the monitor of the future.

The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.

The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.

History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man.

History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man.

It is one thing to learn about the past; it is another to wallow in it.

It is one thing to learn about the past; it is another to wallow in it.

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: read more

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: "President Can't Swim.".

Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.

Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.

It is not the literal past, the "facts" of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in read more

It is not the literal past, the "facts" of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

All history is a Bible--a thing stated in words by me more than
once.

All history is a Bible--a thing stated in words by me more than
once.

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will read more

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.